It's happened before: A Neighbor Island becomes the testing ground for a new idea. The Big Island County Council is trying out a new approach to public campaign financing, for example.

Now Maui's council has adopted an ordinance to ban plastic shopping bags in 2011, giving retailers time to use up their current stock. That's a reasonable approach and, given that smaller bags used for meats and produce have not been banned, a realistic one.

A similar bill is working its way through the Hawai'i council, while Kaua'i's county recycling officials are considering alternatives to plastic to offer consumers.

On O'ahu, however, political will to take this bold step seems lacking. A proposal for a statewide ban failed to clear the hurdles at the state Legislature, and the Honolulu City Council still hasn't acted on its own bill, introduced last fall.

On O'ahu, officials point to H-Power as the city's means to dispose of bags, adding that there are fewer blowing about on the streets and in landfills.

But rather than deal with the residue from burning needless disposables, it would be far better to bring less of that 'opala to our beautiful island to begin with.

Some would argue that a smaller marketplace such as Maui is in a better position to embark on the move away from plastic bags. However, San Francisco and other large Mainland communities are already there, so it would be far more logical for Honolulu — approaching a million residents on a tiny island — to show more resolve.